Vlachs

Vlachs (English: /ˈvlɑːk/ or /ˈvlæk/) is a historical term used for the Eastern Romance-speaking peoples in East-central Europe (including the Balkan peninsula); it is also an exonym used to refer to several modern peoples from the population in present-day Romania and Moldova, the southern end of the Balkans as well as south and west of the Danube.[1] Vlachs were initially identified and described during the 11th century by George Kedrenos.

According to one origin theory, the Vlachs originated from Dacians.[2] According to some linguists and scholars, the Eastern Romance languages prove the survival of the Thraco-Romans in the lower Danube basin during the Migration Period[3] and western Balkan populations known as "Vlachs" also have had Romanized Illyrian origins.[4]

Nearly all Central and Southeastern European countries have (or had in the passing of time) consistent native Vlach (or Romanian) minorities, as it is currently the case in Hungary, in Ukraine (including the Romanians of Chernivtsi Oblast and the Moldovans in other oblasts), in Serbia (including Eastern Serbia), in Croatia (including the Dalmatian Hinterland and Lika region), or in Bulgaria. In other countries (such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Vlachs have assimilated in the local Slavic population. The term "Vlach" was also commonly used for shepherds, like in mountains of Herzegovina region of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Nowadays, Eastern Romance-speaking communities are estimated at 26-30 million people worldwide (including the Romanian diaspora and Moldovan diaspora).[5]

Etymology

The word "Vlach" is of Germanic origin, an early loanword into Proto-Slavic from Germanic *Walhaz ("foreigner" or "stranger") and used by ancient Germanic peoples for their Romance-speaking and (Romanized) Celtic neighbours. *Walhaz was evidently borrowed from the name of a Celtic tribe, known to the Romans as Volcae in the writings of Julius Caesar and to the Greeks as Ouólkai in texts by Strabo and Ptolemy.[6] Vlach is thus of the same origin as European ethnic names including the Welsh and Walloons.[7]

Detailed map depicting Varangian trade routes in Europe during the Viking Age. According to several sagas, the Norsemen encountered the Vlachs (called 'Blökumenn' in Old Norse) at the round of the 11th century, somewhere in the Lower Danube region.

The word passed to the Slavs and from them to other peoples, such as the Hungarians (oláh referring to the Romanians and olasz referring to the Italians) and Byzantines (Βλάχοι, Vláhi"), and was used for all Latin people from the Balkans.[8][9] The Polish word for "Italian" (Włoch, plural Włosi) has the same origin, as does the Slovenian, vaguely-derogatory lah.

The Italian-speaking region south of the South Tyrol, now Trentino in Italy, was known as Welschtirol in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In Western Balkans Vlah, and plural Vlasi, was used exclusively to population of Orthodox adherence, namely Serbs: in Croatia ("Vlaj", plural "Vlaji") when referring to inhabitants of Dalmatian Hinterland, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Vlah", plural "Vlasi") when referring to highlanders and shepherds (often, in earlier times, regardless of religious adherence even) of Dinarides area; later, depending on context, it also became a derogatory term used to label ethnic Serbs.

Nonetheless, some scholars consider that the term "Vlach" appeared for the first time in the Eastern Roman Empire and was subsequently spread to the Germanic- and then Slavic-speaking worlds through the Norsemen (possibly by Varangians), who were in trade and military contact with Byzantium during the early Middle Ages (see also Blakumen).[10][11]

History

Map of southeastern Europe, delineating Roman and Greek influence
The Jireček Line between Latin- and Greek-language Roman inscriptions

The first record of a medieval Romance language in the Balkans dates to the early Byzantine period, with Procopius (500–554) mentioning forts with names such as Skeptekasas (Seven Houses), Burgulatu (Broad City), Loupofantana (Wolf's Well) and Gemellomountes (Twin Mountains).[12][13] A 586 Byzantine chronicle of an incursion against the Avars in the eastern Balkans may have one of the earliest references to Vlachs. In the account, when baggage carried by a mule slipped the muleteer shouted: "Torna, torna, fratre!" ("Return, return, brother!").[14][15][16] Byzantine historians used the Germanic Vlachs for Latin speakers, particularly Romanians.[17][18][19]

The name "Blökumenn" is mentioned in a Nordic saga with respect to events that took place in either 1018 or 1019 somewhere at the northwestern part of the Black Sea and believed by some to be related to the Vlachs.[20][21] According to 10th century Arab chronicler Mutahhar al-Maqdisi, "They say that in the Turkic neighbourhood there are the Khazars, Russians, Slavs, Waladj, Alans, Greeks and many other peoples."[22] Byzantine writer Kekaumenos, author of the Strategikon (1078), described a 1066 Roman (Vlach) revolt in northern Greece.[23] Traveler Benjamin of Tudela (1130–1173) of the Kingdom of Navarre was one of the first writers to use the word Vlachs for a Romance-speaking population.[24]

During the late 9th century the Hungarians invaded the Pannonian basin, where the province of Pannonia was inhabited—according to the Gesta Hungarorum, written around 1200 by the anonymous chancellor of King Bela III of Hungary—by the "Slavs [Sclavi], Bulgarians [Bulgarii] and Vlachs [Blachii], and the shepherds of the Romans [pastores Romanorum]" (sclauij, Bulgarij et Blachij, ac pastores romanorum in the original).[25] Between the 12th and 14th centuries they were ruled by the Kingdom of Hungary, the Byzantine Empire, and the Golden Horde.[26]

In chapter XIV of the Alexiad, Anna Komnene identifies Vlachs from the Balkans with the Dacians, describing their region around Haemus Mons: "On either side of its slopes dwell many very wealthy tribes, the Dacians and the Thracians on the northern side, and on the southern, more Thracians and the Macedonians". Byzantine historian John Kinnamos described Leon Vatatzes' military expedition along the northern Danube, where Vatatzes mentioned the participation of Vlachs in battles with the Magyars (Hungarians) in 1166.[27][28] In the 13th century, the Asen royal family (who was of Vlach origin) were the founders and rulers of the Vlach-Bulgarian kingdom.

Map of Central/Southern Europe during the Late Middle Ages/Early Modern period by Johannes Honterus

In 1213 an army of Romans (Vlachs), Transylvanian Saxons, and Pechenegs, led by Ioachim of Sibiu, attacked the Bulgars and Cumans from Vidin.[29] After this, all Hungarian battles in the Carpathian region were supported by Romance-speaking soldiers from Transylvania.[30] At the end of the 13th century, during the reign of Ladislaus the Cuman, Simon de Kéza wrote about the Blacki people and placed them in Pannonia with the Huns.[31][32] Archaeological discoveries indicate that Transylvania was gradually settled by the Magyars, and the last region defended by the Vlachs and Pechenegs (until 1200) was between the Olt River and the Carpathians.[33][34]

Shortly after the fall of the Olt region, a church was built at the Cârța Monastery and Catholic German-speaking settlers from Rhineland and Mosel Valley (known as Transylvanian Saxons) began to settle in the Orthodox region.[35] In the Diploma Andreanum issued by King Andrew II of Hungary in 1224, "silva blacorum et bissenorum" was given to the settlers.[36] The Orthodox Vlachs spread further northward along the Carpathians to Poland, Slovakia, and Moravia and were granted autonomy under Ius Vlachonicum (Walachian law).[37]

In 1285 Ladislaus the Cuman fought the Tatars and Cumans, arriving with his troops at the Moldova River. A town, Baia (near the said river), was documented in 1300 as settled by the Transylvanian Saxons (see also Foundation of Moldavia).[38][39] In 1290 Ladislaus the Cuman was assassinated; the new Hungarian king allegedly drove voivode Radu Negru and his people across the Carpathians, where they formed Wallachia along with its first capital Câmpulung (see also Foundation of Wallachia).[40]

Eastern Romance peoples

Map of southeastern Europe, with coloured arrows indicating the Vlach dispersion
Vlach (Romanian) branches and their territories

The Eastern Romance peoples refers to the Eastern Romance-speaking peoples, primarily the nations of Romanians and Moldovans, who are both Daco-Romanian-speaking (descending from Vulgar Latin, adopted in Dacia by a process of Romanization during early centuries AD[41]). These two peoples had before Soviet rule been regarded part of one and the same, Romanian people.[42]

During the Migration Period, the etymon "romanus" (romăn, rumăn) crystallized as the Eastern Romance peoples were surrounded by foreign, pagan, peoples, the term having long meant "Christians".[43] Soviet historiography maintains that the Moldovans received an ethnic individuality in the late Middle Ages through contacts with Slavs.[44] Other Eastern Romance-speaking communities, which are not Daco-Romance-speaking, traditionally exist in Greece, Albania and Macedonia (the Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians), and Croatia (the Istro-Romanians).

Demographics

The table below highlights the distribution of Daco-Romanians in countries from Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.

Country Population Origin Language Year
 Romania 16,869,816-18,029,678[45][46] Romanians Romanian-speaking 2011
 Moldova 2,423,328[47] Moldovans Romanian-speaking 2014
 Ukraine 409,600[48] Romanians/Moldovans Romanian-speaking 2001
 Serbia 64,662[49][50] Romanians/Vlachs Romanian-speaking/Vlach-speaking 2011
 Hungary 35,641[51] Romanians Romanian-speaking 2011
 Bulgaria 4,475[52][53] Vlachs/Romanians Romanian-speaking 2011
Total 20,967,384

The table below highlights the distribution of Aromanians in countries from Southeastern Europe.

Country Population Origin Language Year
 Romania1 260,500[54] Aromanians Aromanian-speaking 2006
 Albania 100,000-200,000[55][56] Aromanians Aromanian-speaking 2004
 Greece 50,000[57] Aromanians Aromanian-speaking 2013
 Macedonia 9,695[58] Aromanians Aromanian-speaking 2002
Total 520,195

1 Most notably in Northern Dobruja

The table below highlights the distribution of Megleno-Romanians in countries from Southeastern Europe.

Country Population Origin Language
 Greece 4,000 Megleno-Romanians Megleno-Romanian-speaking
 Romania2 1,200 Megleno-Romanians Megleno-Romanian-speaking
 Macedonia 1,000 Megleno-Romanians Megleno-Romanian-speaking
Total 6,200

2 Most notably in Northern Dobruja

The table below showcases the distribution of Istro-Romanians in Croatia.

Country Population Origin Language Year
 Croatia 423[59] Istro-Romanians Istro-Romanian language 2011

In the table below are represented the total numbers of all Eastern Romance peoples solely in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe (based on the data from the previous tables above and thus excluding their afferent diasporas).

Origin Population
Daco-Romanians 20,967,384
Aromanians 520,195
Megleno-Romanians 6,200
Istro-Romanians 423
Total 21,494,202

Toponymy

The territories of the Bolohoveni
Bolohoveni territory, according to V. A. Boldur

In addition to the ethnic groups of Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, and Istro-Romanians which emerged during the Migration Period, other Vlachs could be found as far north as Poland, as far west as Moravia and Dalmatia.[60] In search of better pasture, they were called Vlasi or Valaši by the Slavs.

States mentioned in medieval chronicles were:

Regions and places are:

Shepherd culture

During the Middle Ages, many Vlachs were shepherds who drove their flocks through the mountains of Central and Eastern Europe. Vlach shepherds reached as far north as southern Poland (Podhale) and the eastern Czech Republic (Moravia) by following the Carpathians, the Dinaric Alps in the west, the Pindus Mountains in the south, and the Caucasus Mountains in the east.[67] Vlachs have been called "the perfect Balkan citizens" because they are "able to preserve their culture without resorting to war or politics, violence or dishonesty."[68]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Vlach".
  2. ↑ Fine 1991, p. ?: "Traditionally scholars have seen the Dacians as ancestors of the modern Rumanians and Vlachs."
  3. ↑ According to Cornelia Bodea, Ştefan Pascu, Liviu Constantinescu: "România: Atlas Istorico-geografic", Academia Română 1996, ISBN 973-27-0500-0, chap. II, "Historical landmarks", p. 50 (English text), the survival of the Thraco-Romans in the Lower Danube basin during the Migration period is an obvious fact: Thraco-Romans haven't vanished in the soil & Vlachs haven't appeared after 1000 years by spontaneous generation.
  4. ↑ Badlands-Borderland: A History of Southern Albania/Northern Epirus [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover) by T.J. Winnifruth, ISBN 0-7156-3201-9, 2003, page 44: "Romanized Illyrians, the ancestors of the modern Vlachs".
  5. ↑ "Council of Europe Parliamentary Recommendation 1333 (1997)". Assembly.coe.int. 1997-06-24. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
  6. ↑ Ringe, Don. "Inheritance versus lexical borrowing: a case with decisive sound-change evidence." Language Log, January 2009.
  7. ↑ "The name 'Vlach' or 'Wallach' applied to them by their neighbours is identical with the English Wealh or Welsh and means "stranger", but the Vlachs call themselves Aromani, or "Romans" (H.C. Darby, "The face of Europe on the eve of the great discoveries', in The New Cambridge Modern History, vol. 1, 1957:34).
  8. ↑ Kelley L. Ross (2003). "Decadence, Rome and Romania, the Emperors Who Weren't, and Other Reflections on Roman History". The Proceedings of the Friesian School. Retrieved 2008-01-13. Note: The Vlach Connection External link in |journal= (help)
  9. ↑ Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL. 13 June 2013. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-90-04-25076-5.
  10. ↑ Ilie Gherghel, Câteva considerațiuni la cuprinsul noțiunii cuvântului "Vlach", București: Convorbiri Literare, 1920, p. 4-8.
  11. ↑ G. Popa Lisseanu, Continuitatea românilor în Dacia, Editura Vestala, Bucuresti, 2014, p.78
  12. ↑ http://www.fact-index.com/h/hi/history_of_vlachs.html
  13. ↑ http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rbph_0035-0818_1924_num_3_1_6272
  14. ↑ M. Manea, A. Pascu, B. Teodorescu, Istoria românilor din cele mai vechi timpuri până la revoluția din 1821, Ed. Didactică și Pedagogică, București, 1997
  15. ↑ Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Marea Neagră de la origini până la cucerirea otomană, ediția a II-a rev., Ed. Polirom, Iași, 1999, p. 182, 193
  16. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20081003021421/http://www.ear.ro/3brevist/rv8/art14.pdf
  17. ↑ A. ARMBRUSTER, ROMANITATEA ROMÂNILOR ISTORIA UNEI IDEI, Editura Enciclopedica,1993
  18. ↑ http://www.farsarotul.org/nl26_1.htm
  19. ↑ http://www.friesian.com/decdenc2.htm
  20. ↑ Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana, in Drei lygisogur, ed. Å. Lagerholm (Halle/Saale, 1927), p. 29
  21. ↑ V. Spinei, The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century, Brill, 2009, p. 106, ISBN 9789047428800
  22. ↑ A. Decei, V. Ciocîltan, “La mention des Roumains (Walah) chez Al-Maqdisi,”in Romano-arabica I, Bucharest, 1974, pp. 49–54
  23. ↑ G. Murnu, Când si unde se ivesc românii întâia dată în istorie, în „Convorbiri Literare”, XXX, pp. 97-112
  24. ↑ http://users.clas.ufl.edu/fcurta/tudela.html
  25. ↑
  26. ↑ Mircea Muşat, Ion Ardeleanu-From ancient Dacia to modern Romania, p. 114
  27. ↑ A. Decei, op. cit., p. 25.
  28. ↑ V. Spinei, The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta From the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century, Brill, 2009, p.132, ISBN 9789004175365
  29. ↑ Curta, 2006, p. 385
  30. ↑ Ş. Papacostea, Românii în secolul al XIII-lea între cruciată şi imperiul mongol, Bucureşti, 1993, 36; A. Lukács, Ţara Făgăraşului, 156; T. Sălăgean, Transilvania în a doua jumătate a secolului al XIII-lea. Afirmarea regimului congregaţional, Cluj-Napoca, 2003, 26-27
  31. ↑ Simon de Kéza, Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, IV,
  32. ↑ G. Popa-Lisseanu, Izvoarele istoriei Românilor, IV, Bucuresti, 1935, p. .32
  33. ↑ K. HOREDT, Contribuţii la istoria Transilvaniei în secolele IV-XIII, Bucureşti, 1958, p.109-131. IDEM, Siebenburgen im Fruhmittelalter, Bonn, 1986, p.111 sqq.
  34. ↑ I.M.Tiplic, CONSIDERAŢII CU PRIVIRE LA LINIILE ÎNTĂRITE DE TIPUL PRISĂCILOR DIN TRANSILVANIA (sec. IX-XIII)*ACTA TERRAE SEPTEMCASTRENSIS I, pp 147-164
  35. ↑ A. IONIŢĂ, Date noi privind colonizarea germană în Ţara Bârsei şi graniţa de est a regatului maghiar în cea de a doua jumătate a secolului al XII-lea, în RI, 5, 1994, 3-4.
  36. ↑ J. DEER, Der Weg zur Goldenen Bulle Andreas II. Von 1222, în Schweizer Beitrage zur Allgemeinen Geschichte, 10, 1952, pp. 104-138
  37. ↑ Stefan Pascu: A History of Transylvania, Wayne State Univ Pr, 1983, p. 57
  38. ↑ Pavel Parasca, Cine a fost "Laslău craiul unguresc" din tradiţia medievală despre întemeierea Ţării Moldovei [=Who was "Laslău, Hungarian king" of the medieval tradition on the foundation of Moldavia]. In: Revista de istorie şi politică, An IV, Nr. 1.; ULIM;2011 ISSN 1857-4076
  39. ↑ O. Pecican, Dragoș-vodă - originea ciclului legendar despre întemeierea Moldovei. În „Anuarul Institutului de Istorie și Arheologie Cluj”. T. XXXIII. Cluj-Napoca, 1994, pp. 221-232
  40. ↑ D. CĂPRĂROIU, ON THE BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN OF CÂMPULUNG, ″Historia Urbana″, t. XVI, nr. 1-2/2008, pp. 37-64
  41. ↑ Giurescu, Constantin C. (1972). The Making of the Romanian People and Language. Bucharest: Meridiane Publishing House. pp. 43, 98–101, 141.
  42. ↑ Charles King (1 September 2013). The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture. Hoover Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8179-9793-9.
  43. ↑ Ilie Ceaușescu (1989). Transylvania: an ancient Romanian land. Military Publishing House. p. 41. ISBN 978-973-32-0046-8.
  44. ↑ The Current Digest of the Soviet Press. 34. American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. 1982. pp. 101–102.
  45. ↑ 2011 Romanian census
  46. ↑ The first number is a lower estimate, as 1,236,810 people opted out declaring ethnicity at the 2011 Romanian census.
  47. ↑ 2014 Moldovan census; Includes additional 177,635 Moldovans in Transnistria; as per the 2004 census in Transnistria
  48. ↑ 2001 Ukrainian census
  49. ↑ 2011 Serbian census: 29,332 counted as Romanians/35,330 counted as Vlachs
  50. ↑ http://media.popis2011.stat.rs/2011/prvi_rezultati.pdf Serbian Preliminary 2011 Census Results
  51. ↑ http://www.ksh.hu/nepszamlalas/teruleti_adatok
  52. ↑ 3,584 persons were counted as Vlachs (may include Aromanians) and 891 as Romanians in 2011
  53. ↑ WebDesign Ltd. www.webdesign-bg.eu. "2011 Census Results". nsi.bg. Retrieved 2014-09-14.
  54. ↑ "Aromânii vor statut minoritar", in Cotidianul, 9 December 2006
  55. ↑ According to INTEREG - quoted by Eurominority: Aromanians in Albania, Albania's Aromanians; Reemerging into History
  56. ↑ Arno Tanner. The forgotten minorities of Eastern Europe: the history and today of selected ethnic groups in five countries. East-West Books, 2004 ISBN 978-952-91-6808-8, p. 218: "In Albania, Vlachs are estimated to number as many as 200,000"
  57. ↑ "Ethnologue report for language code: rup". Ethnologue.org. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
  58. ↑ 2002 Macedonian census
  59. ↑ 2011 Croatian census
  60. ↑ Hammel, E. A. and Kenneth W. Wachter. "The Slavonian Census of 1698. Part I: Structure and Meaning, European Journal of Population". University of California.
  61. ↑ A. Boldur, Istoria Basarabiei, Editura Victor Frunza, Bucuresti 1992, pp 98-106
  62. ↑ A. Boldur, Istoria Basarabiei, Editura Victor Frunza, Bucuresti 1992
  63. 1 2 3 Since Theophanes Confessor and Kedrenos, in : A.D. Xenopol, Istoria Românilor din Dacia Traiană, Nicolae Iorga, Teodor Capidan, C. Giurescu : Istoria Românilor, Petre Ș. Năsturel Studii și Materiale de Istorie Medie, vol. XVI, 1998
  64. ↑ Map of Yugoslavia, file East, sq. B/f, Istituto Geografico de Agostini, Novara, in : Le Million, encyclopédie de tous les pays du monde, vol. IV, ed. Kister, Geneve, Switzerland, 1970, pp. 290-291, and many other maps & old atlases - these names disappear after 1980.
  65. ↑ Mircea Mușat; Ion Ardeleanu (1985). From Ancient Dacia to Modern Romania. Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică. that in 1550 a foreign writer, the Italian Gromo, called the Banat "Valachia citeriore" (the Wallachia which stands on this side).
  66. ↑ Z. Konecny, F. Mainus, Stopami Minulosti: Kapitol z Dejin Moravy a Slezka/Traces of the Past: Chapters from the History of Moravia and Silesia, Brno:Blok,1979
  67. ↑ Silviu Dragomir: "Vlahii din nordul peninsulei Balcanice în evul mediu"; 1959, p. 172;
  68. ↑ Winnifrith, Tom. "Vlachs". Retrieved 2014-01-13.

References

Further reading

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